A Report on the Success of Manitoba Book Publishers
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Telling Our Own Stories: A Report on the Success of Manitoba Book Publishers Prepared by Jack David, for the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers Includes Manitoba Book Publishing Industry Economic Impact Assessment prepared by the Manitoba Bureau of Statistics. PART I: Telling Our Own Stories: A Report on the Success of Manitoba Book Publishers by Jack David Executive Summary 3 Start of Report 5 Global Challenges to Canadian Book Publishing 5 Manitoba’s Book Publishers 7 Opportunities for Manitoba Writers 7 Francophone Publishing in Manitoba 9 Aboriginal Authors and Books in Manitoba 9 Academic and Scholarly Publishing 10 Succession in Manitoba Publishing 10 Manitoba Publishers Support Freelance Editors and Designers 10 Manitoba Publishers Support Manitoba Printers 11 Engaging Manitoba Readers 12 Supporting Manitoba Culture 12 The Economic Impact of Manitoba Book Publishing 13 Bringing Manitoba Stories to Manitoba Readers 14 Appendix (list of Association of Manitoba Book Publishers members) 16 A report prepared for the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers by Jack David, publisher of ECW Press in Toronto. Jack has been the president of the Organization of Book Publishers of Ontario, chair of the Literary Press Group of Canada, and has served on Council at the Association of Canadian Publishers. As well, he has been a juror for many arts organizations, including the Manitoba Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. PART II: Manitoba Book Publishing Industry Economic Impact Assessment Manitoba Economic Impact Assessment 22 Economic Impact Assessment Results 24 Manitoba Book Publishers Operations Impacts 25 Appendix A: Book Publishers Financial Template 27 Appendix B: Glossary of Terms 29 Prepared by the Manitoba Bureau of Statistics 2 Executive Summary Manitobans want to create and hear their own stories – stories that preserve and develop the history, culture, and social fabric of the Manitoba community. Without Manitoba publishers, many of those essential elements of a strong community would be lost – that is the consensus of writers, printers, librarians, booksellers, newspapers in Manitoba. All Canadian publishers, including those in Manitoba, have faced a series of serious challenges in recent years: the move away from a paper to an electronic process encompassing writing and editing to production, and more recently to Internet retail- ing and electronic books; the loss of the network of local independent booksellers to a consolidated retail network where publisher discounts are reaching 50% and more; the demise of many large and small Canadian publishers. Despite the serious global challenges, Manitoba’s publishers have come through this period largely intact and ready to face current and future challenges. While other larger Canadian publishers have shuttered, Manitoba’s publishing industry has basi- cally remained intact over the difficult last two decades. Manitoba publishers represent a $4 million locally owned and run industry that over the past five years have produced over 430 titles, including works by over 110 new authors, with 1500+ books in print. Manitoba publishers provide opportunities for Manitoba writers that quite simply would not exist otherwise. Without local publishers many well-known Manitoba authors (including Miriam Toews, David Bergen, Lawrence Hill, and Karen Con- nelly), would not have had that first important book and other writers, as David Bergen attests, would not have been able to stay in Manitoba and make a career out of writing. Manitoba publishers are participating in giving voice to, preserving and developing Manitoba culture and history. In particular, two important and unique features of Manitoba’s cultural landscape – its francophone and Aboriginal communities – are not only well represented by Manitoba publishers, but authors from those communi- ties would find it exceedingly difficult to be published otherwise. For example, over the past five years over 20% of new Manitoba–published titles are by Aboriginal authors or about Aboriginal issues, many of which have become Canada-wide successes. In economic terms, Manitoba publishers provide employment for both in-house and contracted work, including editing, designing, and marketing and promotion. While the wage rates in publishing are moderate (averaging about $45,000/year), publishing jobs require highly skilled people in challenging, creative, and responsible positions, and are much sought after. Manitoba publishers also support the printing business in Manitoba – both Friesens Corporation of Altona and Hignell Printing of Winnipeg, firms with cross-country reputations, see Manitoba publishers as a crucial part of their business. 3 While not a huge part of the Manitoba economy – with a total net economic impact of $4.16 million on $3.74 million of direct expenditure – Manitoba publisher dollars stay in Manitoba at a level higher than in most other industries. 76% of direct spend- ing is in Manitoba, 84% of spending is on wages and salaries, and 70% to 85% of revenue is brought into Manitoba from elsewhere. An extremely small public investment of $743,000 (.0001% of provincial govern- ment spending) is returned in taxes and is crucial to giving Manitoba a creative, unique, vibrant cultural industry; one that creates good jobs, sustains its culture, and provides opportunities for writers. 4 Telling Our Own Stories: “If it weren’t for book A Report on the Success of Manitoba publishing in Manitoba, it Book Publishers by Jack David would be unlikely that our own stories would be told. It’s Throughout the world, the book publishing industry has been going through a major trans- formation, and Manitoba book publishers are directly affected by these changes. In order to true that there are ephemeral develop quality books about Manitoba and books by Manitoba authors, the need for public ways of telling stories, such as support is more crucial now than ever before. This report demonstrates that ongoing and substantial Manitoba governmental assistance is vital. TV and the Internet, but they don’t carry the gravitas of Global Challenges to Canadian Book Publishing publishing books.” Not since the invention of movable type five hundred years ago has a significant revolu- — Paul McNally, tion altered the world of books. Until the 1970s, things had remained more or less McNally Robinson the same for hundreds of years. The scene at a British publisher such as Macmillan or Booksellers Oxford in 1850 would not have been substantially different from the one at McClelland & Stewart in 1965. Then came the electronic information age. The first sweeping change was typesetting companies being replaced by in-house com- puters and software. This happened in less than ten years from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. Thousands of people lost their jobs and huge companies were shuttered. The personal computer allowed publishers to take control of the production process, including design, typesetting, and other pre-press functions. All publishers needed new equipment and highly technical training. By the mid-1990s, while book production technology continued to develop, another change loomed into sight: the Internet. Publishers were alert to the possibility that this medium for transmitting the words and pictures of their authors might change things. At first, the future appeared to be the CD-ROM, and large publishers invested a lot of money in this technology. But by 1997 or so, the CD-ROM as a preeminent device for distributing intellectual content in words and pictures had evaporated. In 1995, a new company, first called Cadabra, appeared on the Internet, and quickly became Amazon when the name became confused with “cadaver.” As Internet usage became more common, Amazon morphed into the source for all new and used books, whether in print or out of print. Publishers had to learn how to deal with this new sell- ing method. As Amazon rapidly grew, a wave of simultaneous consolidation occurred in the Cana- dian retail bookstore market. From three distinct and separately owned chains (Coles, SmithBooks, Classic Bookshops), and hundreds of independents, one company (Indigo/Chapters) emerged as the monolith —buying the chains and simultaneously opening big-box bookstores with 50,000-100,000 titles in stock. Publishers now had to sell into a single chain that demanded higher and higher discounts from an aver- age of 40% to 44%, then 46%, and then 48% — with an additional marketing fee if the publisher wanted its books prominently displayed. This trend was led by Amazon which is now demanding discounts of 50% and more. The publishers’ margins were squeezed. In addition, the consolidation of the retail market saw many independent bookstores driven out of business, unable to compete with massive discounting and 5 huge selection. As a result, publishers had fewer and fewer bricks-and-mortar outlets in which to sell their books. This consolidation made it even more difficult for smaller and independent publish- ers to get attention and sales for their books. With longer print runs reducing produc- tion costs, the major international publishers are able to offer the large discounts to retailers, and have in turn more marketing clout. Independent Manitoba publishers have found it harder to get access to the Canadian retail book market faced with the dominance of the multinationals and the reduction in bricks-and-mortar stores. At the same time as bookstores were either consolidating or disappearing, the era of digital transformation took root in the